PicMonkey for photo editing and watermark

I now use PicMonkey for nearly every photo I post.  I can crop photos and also put the watermark on each one, if I so desire.

Here's the link to PicMonkey.  I only use the free version, but I may update to the Royale one next month...

http://www.picmonkey.com/

To crop a photo, just click on the top icon on the left.  To add the watermark, click on the T button on the left, choose a font and color, and then type in your text.

I don't use Picasa, so this works for me!  You can even add textures and frames to photos, like I did with this one:

All I wanted to do was plant my lavender, but I took a tumble!

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous morning here in the desert and by afternoon, I believe it was about 74 degrees here.  I headed over to both Lowes and Home Depot to buy some plants for our railroad tie planter.  I wanted to get some for the bees and hummingbirds, so I bought 3 lavender plants, 2 yellow shrubs, and a couple of red things.  Oh, and some kind of little shrub I'd never seen before.  I noticed a hummingbird feeding on it at Home Depot, so I bought 2 of them for about $3.00 each.  Oh, and Lowe's had a 1 gallon bougainvilla for $3.00 with some frost damage, so I picked that up, also.  I also bought some 6 packs of stock and alyssum.

The previous day I had dug 4 spots along our rock pathway for a couple of lavender and 2 other plants.  I really wanted to alternate purple and yellow, so I bought 1 yellow daisy and something else with tubes.

Hum de hum...I was busy planting 3 of the shrubs when I went KER-SPLAT!  I forgot the 4th hole was there, my foot went in it, and I went face first toward the rocky pathway, just missing my head from one of the rocks there.  I threw out my right hand to protect my face and landed hard on my side.  OUCH!

I laid there for a minute or two (I was alone, at home, at the time) and my faithful black lab, Ripley, came over to see if I was okay.  I quite unlady-like got myself up, dusted off, and looked at my right hand. It was cut in two places and my knee was scraped.  I was a bit shaky, but basically okay.  I went and sat down for about 15 minutes and just listened to the birds making a ruckus over the bird seed.

I tried to lie down, but couldn't sleep, so I went back outside and attempted to clean off the front porch.  I did arrange our two red plastic chairs to get a good view of the bird feeders, then later I went out and put some nasturtium seeds and delphinium and baby's breath out in the planter.  I hope the damn dog doesn't dig everything up!  She's not much of a digger, however, so I think they'll be fine.  I'll go out today and take some pics.

A tail? Nope...a TONGUE!

We were attempting to wear out the 22 month old last Saturday, so we all headed up to the Living Desert's giraffe exhibit.  There were 4 of them out that morning and also an ostrich and a kudu.  I've never seen so many of that exhibit's animals out at once!  Two of the larger giraffes were out trying to capture acacia leaves and two more were on the other side of their large enclosure.  They had just been fed their breakfast, so they weren't hungry.  Seems like it was more of a behavior thing.  One of the larger giraffes was intent upon grabbing some nice, juicy acacia leaves, so I spent some time watching him.

Death of the piano?

I read a disturbing story on Facebook this past week that piano sales have plummeted and stores across the country are closing at an alarming rate.

This disturbs me.  It disturbs me greatly.

First, I've noticed that our society now is "GIMME, GIMME, GIMME...I want it NOW!" Learning to play the piano takes TIME.  And it also takes PATIENCE.  It takes HOURS and HOURS of practice. That simply won't cut it in today's society.  Kids today want EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW.  I had a student tell me one day, "I WANT my iPad NOW!"  So, I replied, "I want YOU to sit down and be quiet!"  He didn't get his iPad that day.

It took me nearly 12 years to master playing the piano.  I began lessons at age 6.  I went off to college as a piano performance major.  Unfortunately, so did 3 other girls in my dorm and frankly, there wasn't room for ALL of us.  My mother wanted me to be a concert pianist, like one of my great-grandmothers.  I never achieved that goal.  Instead of focusing on my music studies, I took my liberal arts courses and fell in love with (1) political science and (2) my husband.   :-)  I did give piano lessons for several years to give myself an income, but those quickly faded away.  I never gave enough lessons to pay the rent on the piano we had in our first apartment!   :-(

But, I've nearly always had a piano in our home.  I have one here today.  And, even so often I sit down and go through my piano music.  I notice that the fingers aren't as quick as they once were and I do stumble around a bit, but muscle memory is an incredible thing!

Second, learning to play the piano is a great way to branch off toward other instruments.  When you play piano, you have to read both clefs.  I also had to learn to do many things with my left hand.  I brushed my teeth with my left hand.  I combed my hair with my left hand.  I TRIED to iron with my left hand.  But, I notice now, that I can do a lot of things with both hands (not just my right.)  I cannot write legibly with my left, but, if I'm in a hurry, I CAN scribble something on the white board at school.

Third, I did branch off toward two other instruments:  the violin and clarinet.  My mother played the violin in college and was first chair.  She NEVER let me forget that.  So, I learned to play the violin.  I didn't play well...in fact, she would cover her ears and run from the room!  But, I did learn.  And, in high school, I played the guitar.  I also taught myself to play the clarinet, using my cousin's old clarinet.  I so wanted to be in marching band with my boyfriend, at that time!  One cannot be in marching band while playing a piano!  NO WAY!  I never qualified enough to make it into band, much to the smirk on my orchestra director's face.  HE wanted me to play piano and I was the solo pianist at my high school for two years.  What's really ironic is that when our daughter was performing and being judged in high school, she played before Mr. Reinecke!  He evaluated her (of course SHE got outstanding marks) and I introduced her to him and reminded him of our previous connection AFTER the judging was over!  I actually ran into him several times after that.  I hope he was proud of me and my daughter.  He was an outstanding musician (a violinist) and had absolutely perfect pitch.  Boy, if I played a wrong note, one glance from him was enough for me!

Fourth, being a pianist also made me an incredibly fast typist!  I'm also extremely kinesthetic.  You can tell me how to do something, but until I do it with my hands, FORGET IT!  Gardner wrote about kinesthetic intelligence and you can read about it here:  http://psychology.about.com/od/educationalpsychology/ss/multiple-intell_5.htm

And, here it says:  "gardener" and "farmer".  Yup.  That's ME!   :-)  http://www.mypersonality.info/multiple-intelligences/bodily-kinesthetic/

So, it saddens me to hear this about my beloved instrument.  I can at least say that in my family, our daughter has my aunt's old upright and GUESS WHO (21 months) loves to explore that piano!  I'll try to find some photos to post.  I might have some of her playing with it on my iPad and I'll have to figure out how to get them over here.

Living Desert Part 3 ~~I meet a kestrel

As a member, I can enter the park after 8:00 a.m. and I'm an early riser, so I was there pretty early.  We'd had a frost here in town that morning, so I layered and off I went with only my camera and wallet.  It was pretty cold in the shady areas, but, like a roadrunner, I stayed in the sun to warm up!  I even spread out my arms a couple of times to let the sun's rays warm me!  I didn't see any roadrunners, but I scared off a couple of rabbits!

I also had a near-close encounter with a hawk.  I was walking through the butterfly garden, when suddenly....WHOOSH! It made a dive bomb and swooshed so close to my head that the hairs on my head actually raised up!  He didn't hit me, but it was a CLOSE CALL!  I only saw a dark-colored hawk (no white).  It looked gray underneath, so it wasn't a Cooper's hawk.  I have no idea what it was and it flew into a nearby palm tree.  Maybe a Harris hawk, although they are brown, not gray.  It was a fairly large hawk, too...definitely NOT something as small as a Kestrel.

Speaking of Kestrels, this little guy was out with his handler as I walked back toward the cafe and gift shop.  We USED to have Kestrels in our neighborhood, but, with the arrival of the Cooper's hawks, they have disappeared.  That's sad because I used to love to hear their little cries in the mornings.

I talked to the little hawk's handler for a while and found out his name is "Cujo".  He is an injured bird and will NOT ever be released back into the wild.  He is a beautiful little thing, don't you think? She told me one morning she had him out when a Cooper's hawk swooshed down toward Cujo!  Only her quick actions saved the little guy!  Talk about scary!!!  Isn't he adorable?

I

Living Desert Reserve visit Part 2

I always enjoy seeing the birds in the two aviaries there, so I walked down to one of them before the kids and granddaughter arrived.  It was pretty dark in there, but I found these guys:

There are two turkey vultures in the aviary.  I often see them soaring above Deep Canyon.

Living Desert visit yesterday Part 1

So, yesterday morning our daughter wanted to meet me at the Living Desert Reserve here in Palm Desert.  She said 8:15 - 8:30 a.m., so I was there about 8:20.  Turns out that the parents had a rough night with the 21 month old!  She didn't go to bed until... 9:30 and then was awake for an hour during the night!  THEY were exhausted, but she was roarin' to go that morning.  I had about 45 minutes to myself, so I just kinda wandered around the park.  It is so beautiful in the early morning sunlight!